CMOS silicon imagers are the dominant focal plane arrays for visible light imaging. CMOS silicon imagers are implemented in multitude of applications from security cameras to cell phones. Due to silicon's band gap, these imaging platforms are spectrally limited with primary applications in the human visible spectrum. As crystalline silicon is mostly transparent to light wavelengths longer than 1.1 μm, for the short wavelength infrared (SWIR), imagers use compound semiconductor materials including indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs), mercury cadmium telluride (HgCdTe), and germanium (Ge). These compound semiconductor materials demonstrate good image performance, but they do so at very high cost due to manufacturability and cost structure due to their incompatibility with commercial high volume CMOS silicon processes. This application relates to another approach.